Candidates set for circuit judge races

9 vying for 4 seats in Orange, Osceola and Seminole

Nine people are running for four circuit judge seats in Orange, Osceola, and Seminole counties — including Jeff Ashton, the former OrangeOsceola state attorney.

Friday was the qualifying deadline for the Aug. 28 primary election.

Ashton lost his re-election bid for the state attorney’s seat in the 2016 to Aramis Ayala, the region’s current top prosecutor. He is running in the Ninth Judicial Circuit’s 15th division.

“I think the biggest thing about me is … voters sort of know what they’re getting. My career has been very public and people kind of know what I stand for, and I think that’s kind of rare in a judicial race,” said Ashton, perhaps best known as a prosecutor in the ultra-high-profile 2011 murder trial of Casey Anthony.

He is running against Howard Friedman, who this week resigned from his position as a court magistrate to run for judge. In his 13 years as a magistrate, he heard cases of juvenile dependency, among others, and had to make recommendations regarding whether parents were able to take care of their children.

“I have more experience in the private sector. I have more experience than I believe my opponent has,” Friedman said. “... I can make tough decisions; I have made tough decisions.”

In the 26th division, Joseph Haynes Davis is running against Tom Young. Davis’ experience ranges from mortgage law to criminal law, while Young’s practice is in appellate cases.

“I am running because I feel strongly about the need for judges who are hard workers and who are efficient, because the courts are understaffed and underfunded,” Young said. “I just think it’s important for the public and especially litigants to have meaningful access to courts.”

Davis couldn’t be reached Friday.

Assistant State Attorney Lorraine DeYoung is running for a spot on the bench in the 41st division. She prosecutes sex crimes and resentencing

for juvenile offenders who were sentenced to life without parole before the law allowing those sentences was declared unconstitutional.

“Hopefully I would be one of those judges that would run a very good, fair, efficient courtroom,” DeYoung said. “And with my experience with the law, I think I would bring a lot to the bench.”

Also running in the 41st division are Dean Mosley, an immigration and criminal defense attorney who graduated from the Thurgood Marshall School of Law in Houston; and Laura Shaffer, who was a supervising attorney for the Department of Children and Families before opening a private practice in 2008.

Some of the people Shaffer represents are minors who are victims of human trafficking, which she said gives her insight into the needs of people who come before the court.

“I think it’s important to recognize that it is the most important day of their lives and that they should be treated with respect and dignity,” she said.

Mosley could not be reached last week.

In Seminole County, incumbent Circuit Judge Melissa Dyan Souto will face opposition in her first race since being appointed to the bench in 2015. She’s at the juvenile courthouse handling cases including dependency and delinquency. Because those cases can be so personal, Souto said she makes a point to listen to those who come before her.

“I find a lot of times that that diffuses the situation somewhat,” she said. “I remind them that I understand this is an emotional situation, and redirect them to what we are here for.”

Running against her is Adam Pollack, who has a private criminal defense and family law practice.

“I’ve had an opportunity to really see people in different stages of their life and I’ve always been there to help them resolve difficult situations,” he said. “While you may be dispensing justice, there should always be an element of compassion.”